After a previously-unscheduled trip to the vets for something unspeakable to be done to Poppy (anal glands emptied!) and after finishing off some urgent work, I was finally in holiday mode! This involved packing (doesn’t take long when you’ve only got two panniers), changing the bike tyres (which James did for me), photographing the two bikes for the header for this blog, then putting them in the car ready for an early start tomorrow.

Weather forecast is looking pretty good, so in deference to my Englishness I have left the mudguards behind (they rattle annoyingly). This, of course, panders to all the preconceptions of Germans like Olaf Storbeck who insist that British cyclists are a strange breed for foregoing mudguards whenever possible. So I’m hoping for nothing more than showers during our cycling days; I have packed a packaway waterproof jacket just in case, however.